In your first two years of engineeing at college, you will study calculus, chemistry, physics, intro programming, english and other non-tech courses.
In most universities you dont get to touch a wire or transistor until your junior year, or a gear, motor...
you spend the first two years building a foundation of science, then you start taking the more interesting courses.
Thats why most college competitions are for juniors and seniors.
But getting back to FIRST - the only reason you have engineers and teachers, and corporate leaders giving their personal time and money to be mentors in FIRST - is to get you INTO college - not to give you a crash course in engineering, or to teach you how to design a stack wacking machine.
I dont think you will find many mentors willing to give up this kind of personal time and energy for something like FIRST at the college level. Thats what we pay the colleges for - to teach you that stuff when you get there. And they already do an excellent job of it.
FIRST is sucessful because we bridge the gap between highschool freshman math and your first year of college. FIRST shows you there is an incredibly light at the end of the tunnel. Say in high school, stick it out, work hard, get into a good college - and you will make it the rest of the way on your own.
FIRST
laying with robots, Altering the future!